Commercial work
Photo Proofing Workflow for Art Directors
An art director scans fast, separates a maybe from a yes, shows three other people, and hands back one list. The question this guide answers is what happens to that list next.
Updated 2026-09-07
A proofing round with an art director is not a client gallery in the usual sense. Nobody is going to cry at a photograph of a folding chair. The round is a working session with a deadline attached, and it succeeds or fails on two things: how fast the art director can get through the take, and how cleanly their decision reaches the person who has to act on it.
The second half is where most rounds leak. The selection is made in a browser and the retouching happens in Lightroom Classic, and the only thing that crosses between them is filenames. So the filenames get emailed, pasted into a document, or read off a second screen while somebody clicks. This guide covers what an art director actually needs from the round, what the photographer needs back from it, and how each of the main gallery platforms hands the selection over, as published on their own pages today.
What the art director needs, in order
Write the workflow from their side first, because they are the one on the clock. Four things matter to an art director in a proofing round, and none of them is gallery design.
- Scanning speed. A big take gets reviewed in one sitting or it gets reviewed badly. Anything that costs a click per frame costs the whole round.
- A maybe that stays a maybe. A single heart icon forces every frame into yes or nothing. Real selection has a shortlist and a must-have list, and the difference between them is the most useful information in the round.
- A view for the wider team. The copywriter, the account lead and the client all want to look. Very few of them should be able to change the list.
- One final list, unambiguously final. Not three revisions of a shortlist living in a mail thread. One handover, with a name and a time attached to it.
The photographer needs one thing back: a selection that maps onto the catalog without transcription. Every minute spent reproducing the art director's list by hand is a minute of unbillable work with a real error rate.
Where the round breaks: the handback
Consider what the photographer receives at the end of a normal round. A list of filenames. Sometimes as a CSV, sometimes as a text block formatted for a search field, sometimes as an email that says approved, with 40 names under it.
That list then has to be reproduced inside a Lightroom catalog. The frames have to be found, then marked, because a list that is not written into the catalog evaporates the moment the window is closed. And whatever structure the art director built, the shortlist against the must-haves, the note attached to frame 214, does not survive the trip. What arrives is a flat list of names.
None of this is difficult. It is manual, it is repeated on every round, and it is silently lossy at both ends. That is the actual problem worth solving in a commercial proofing workflow.
How each platform hands the selection back
Everything in this table was read on the vendor's own help pages on 7 September 2026. Where a page does not publish an action, the table says so rather than claiming the product cannot do it.
| Platform | What the photographer can do with the picks, as published |
|---|---|
| Pixieset | From Activities, Favorite Activity: view the photos, rename the list, download all images, export a CSV of filenames, export a Lightroom Copy List, read client notes, send the images as a digital download, copy them to a new Set or Collection, create a mobile gallery app, or delete the list. Lists are organized by email address. |
| Pic-Time | From the Workflow tab, User's Favorites: view the selected photos, download the list, send the favorites list to any user, and download a CSV of the favorites. A Lightroom plugin setting called LR Sync also Favorites can be switched on under Settings, Preferences, then used with the Sync Gallery button. |
| ShootProof | The client sees a filtered Favorites view in the gallery. The photographer is notified on the dashboard and by email when a linked contact finishes, reads the favorites count in the Gallery Visitors report, and can send those files directly to the client. The help centre states that in Lightroom you can filter the photos your clients have chosen as Favorites in a gallery. |
| CloudSpot | The published favorites article covers the client side: the client picks in the gallery, then downloads their favorites list by email, and downloads must be enabled first. No photographer-side filename export is described on the pages fetched. |
| clientgallery.io | One command in Lightroom Classic pulls the selection back by filename. Starred photos are rated three stars, loved photos are rated five stars and flagged as Picks, and the whole selection is gathered into a collection named after the gallery. An Export picks (.txt) button gives the same selection as a plain filename list for Capture One and Hasselblad Phocus. |
Read the first four rows together and the pattern is the same one: the selection comes back as names. What differs is the format of the names.
Credit where it is due: the Lightroom Copy List
Pixieset's Lightroom Copy List is a real convenience and it deserves to be named as one. It is one click from the favorite list, it needs no plugin installed, and it is included with the plan. A photographer with tidy sequential filenames can be looking at the right frames inside a minute. A CSV of filenames sits next to it for anyone who would rather work in a spreadsheet.
What it is, though, is a list. Writing stars, pick flags or a collection into a Lightroom catalog is not among the actions Pixieset publishes on its Favorite Activity page. So the marking step still happens by hand, and it happens again on the next round.
Pixieset also handles the maybe problem better than it usually gets credit for. Clients can organize selections into one or more lists, rename them, add notes, and send the list to the photographer to confirm they are finished, and a photographer can preset a list with a cap on how many selections it accepts. An art director who wants a shortlist and a must-have list can build exactly that. The gap is not in the gathering. It is in the handback.
The round trip that ends in the catalog
The version worth aiming at has the round finish inside Lightroom Classic, with no filename typed by anyone. With clientgallery.io the sequence is:
- Publish the proofs out of the catalog. The Lightroom Classic plugin builds and names the gallery from the shoot. Re-exporting the same shoot replaces each photo in place, same row, same picks, new pixels, rather than duplicating the gallery.
- Send the link. The gallery lives on the studio's own subdomain and carries the studio's logo, name, colours and fonts. There is no platform name, badge, footer or link on the page the agency sees.
- The art director works the take. A single tap stars a frame, a double tap loves it, and tapping the level a frame already has clears it. A running tray at the bottom of the page counts both.
- They send once. The send button warns that this locks the picks, asks for a name and an email, and confirms. The photographer gets an email, a phone notification and a dashboard state change the moment it lands.
- Pull it into the catalog. One command matches the picks by filename against the open catalog: stars become three-star ratings, loves become five stars plus a Pick flag, and everything the art director chose lands in a collection named after the gallery.
The mechanics of that last step, including what happens when filenames do not match, are covered in the guide on getting client picks back into Lightroom. On Capture One or Hasselblad Phocus the same selection comes out as a plain filename list from the Export picks (.txt) button on the gallery.
Two levels, so a maybe survives the trip
The two pick levels exist for exactly the reason an art director needs them. A star is the shortlist. A heart is a must-have. Both are recorded per frame, both are counted separately in the tray, and both survive the handback as different things.
In the catalog that difference becomes a filter you already use. Five stars and the pick flag give you the retouching queue. Three stars and above give you the whole shortlist, which is the list you go back to when the layout changes and a frame has to be swapped. Nobody has to remember which of the 40 names was the strong one.
Clients can also comment on individual frames, and those comments can optionally be written into the IPTC caption during the import, so a request travels with the file instead of living in a mail thread.
Letting the team look without letting the team vote
The wider review is the other thing that turns a clean round into six competing opinions. Three controls handle it.
- No accounts, for anyone. The link is the login. There is nothing to create, approve or reset before a producer in another timezone can open the take.
- Sections with their own view-only links. A gallery can be split into named sections, and each section has its own share link that shows that section alone, flattened, with no picks, no downloads and no comments. That is the link for people who should see the work and not edit the list.
- A password, checked on the server. When a gallery carries a password, the server returns only the prompt: the photos are never queried and never reach the page source. The whole-gallery ZIP and the full-resolution handoff refuse the request too.
Inside the gallery, sections render as named blocks on one page with a jump bar at the top, so an art director can go straight to the setups they are reviewing rather than scrolling through the whole shoot. On the photographer's side, each gallery card carries a dot showing whether the client has opened it, with a filter for the ones nobody has opened yet. That answers the only status question worth asking mid-round.
The numbers, and the ceilings
Commercial takes are large, so the limits matter more here than they do on a portrait session. These are the figures in the product today, verified in code on 7 September 2026.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Price | 10 $ a month, or 100 $ a year, which is 8.33 $ a month |
| Free account | One gallery, up to 5 GB of proofs |
| Photos per gallery | 1,000, so a bigger take is split across more than one gallery |
| Proof storage, paid account | 250 GB, a fair-use tripwire rather than a tier |
| Proof size | Compressed in the photographer's own browser to roughly 0.6 MB per JPEG |
| Gallery lifetime | Hosted for as long as the account exists; nothing expires it |
| Full-resolution delivery | One ZIP per gallery, live for 3 days per handoff, re-uploadable any time, 100 GB of live ZIPs per account |
Two of those are deliberate limits rather than features. Full-resolution delivery is a handoff, not a warehouse: the ZIP expires, the gallery does not. And the platform hosts JPEG proofs, not RAW files and not master video.
When you should not move
The agency proofs inside its own review or asset management software. This is the honest one, and it is common. If the account already runs review rounds in the agency's own system, with its own versioning, its own approvals and its own audit trail, the photographer does not get to choose the tool. Nor should they try. A photographer's gallery competing with an agency's review platform is a worse experience for everyone, and the right move is to deliver into the system the agency already uses.
You do not use Lightroom Classic. The round trip described here ends in a Lightroom Classic catalog. On Capture One or Phocus you get a filename list, which is a genuine improvement over retyping but is the same shape of thing the other platforms already give you.
Your business runs on the print store. There is no print store here, no commissions and no storage tiers, which is what keeps the price flat. If a meaningful share of your revenue comes through an integrated store, that is worth more than a faster handback.
You deliver RAW or video as the product. Proofs are JPEGs. RAW warehousing and master video are not part of this platform, and a page that told you otherwise would be selling you something that does not exist.
Sources
clientgallery.io behaviour was verified in the product code on 7 September 2026. Every competitor statement was read on the vendor's own page on 7 September 2026. Pixieset pages were read directly in a browser because that host refuses automated fetches; ShootProof help articles were read through its own help-centre API for the same reason.
- clientgallery.io, Lightroom Classic plugin (publish from the catalog, pull picks back by filename, three stars for starred, five stars plus a Pick flag for loved, a collection named after the gallery, Export picks (.txt) for Capture One and Hasselblad Phocus), verified in code 7 September 2026, https://clientgallery.io/lightroom
- clientgallery.io pricing and fair-use figures (10 $ a month or 100 $ a year, one free gallery, 1,000 photos per gallery, 250 GB per paid account, 5 GB free, roughly 0.6 MB proof JPEGs, full-resolution ZIP live 3 days with 100 GB standing per account), verified in code 7 September 2026, https://clientgallery.io/
- Pixieset, How can I review my client's Favorite Activity (the published list of actions on a favorite list, including the CSV of filenames and the Lightroom Copy List, lists organized by email address), read 7 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002991071-How-can-I-review-my-client-s-Favorite-Activity
- Pixieset, Using favorite lists for client proofing (one or more lists, renaming, notes, sending the list to the photographer, preset lists with a selection cap), read 7 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003733131-Using-favorite-lists-for-client-proofing
- Pic-Time, Where do I see my client's favorited photos (Workflow tab, User's Favorites, download the list, send it to any user, download a CSV, the LR Sync also Favorites setting), fetched 7 September 2026, https://help.pic-time.com/en/articles/7908443-where-do-i-see-my-client-s-favorited-photos
- Pic-Time, How does a client select photos via the Selection Request tool, desktop (flag icon, Send to Photographer, email notification, blocked submission when the requested count is exceeded), fetched 7 September 2026, https://help.pic-time.com/en/articles/7831155-how-does-a-client-select-photos-via-the-selection-request-tool-desktop
- Pic-Time pricing (Client Selections listed on the Professional and Advanced plans), fetched 7 September 2026, https://www.pic-time.com/pricing
- ShootProof help centre, favorites and client proofing articles 1500009323842, 115010773368 and 115009451587 (filtered Favorites view, dashboard and email notification when a linked contact finishes, the favorites count in the Gallery Visitors report, sending the files to the client, filtering client Favorites in Lightroom), fetched 7 September 2026, https://help.shootproof.com/api/v2/help_center/articles/search.json?query=favorites%20client%20proofing
- ShootProof features (clients can proof galleries with favorites, labels, and more), fetched 7 September 2026, https://www.shootproof.com/features/
- CloudSpot, How do my clients download their favorites (the client downloads their favorites list, downloads must be enabled in gallery settings, the link is sent to the email the client enters), fetched 7 September 2026, https://help.cloudspot.io/en/articles/1979890-how-do-my-clients-download-their-favorites
Frequently asked
What does an art director need from a photo proofing gallery?
Four things. Speed, because a large take gets reviewed in one sitting. A way to mark a maybe separately from a yes, because a shortlist and a must-have list are different decisions. A view the wider team can open without being able to change the list. And one unambiguous handover at the end, with a name and a time attached to it.
How do art director picks get back into Lightroom Classic?
With clientgallery.io, one command in Lightroom Classic matches the selection by filename against the open catalog. Starred photos are rated three stars, loved photos are rated five stars and flagged as Picks, and the whole selection lands in a collection named after the gallery. Nobody types a filename.
Can the art director mark a maybe separately from an approved frame?
Yes. There are two pick levels: a star for the shortlist and a heart for the must-haves. They are counted separately in the gallery and they arrive in the catalog as different ratings, so five stars is the retouching queue and three stars and above is the whole shortlist.
What does Pixieset give the photographer at the end of a proofing round?
From the Favorite Activity screen, Pixieset publishes these actions on a favorite list: view the photos, rename the list, download all images, export a CSV of filenames, export a Lightroom Copy List, read client notes, send the images as a digital download, copy them to a new Set or Collection, create a mobile gallery app, or delete the list. The Lightroom Copy List is a genuine convenience. Writing stars, flags or a collection into a catalog is not among the published actions.
Can I share the take with the wider creative team without letting them change the selection?
Yes. A gallery can be split into named sections, and each section has its own share link that shows that section alone, flattened, with no picks, no downloads and no comments. That is the link for people who should see the work and not edit the list. Galleries can also carry a password, which is checked on the server before any photo is queried.
Do reviewers need to create an account?
No. The share link is the login, plus the gallery password if one is set. Names and email addresses are collected once, at the moment the selection is sent, so the round is not held up by account creation for a producer or a client in another timezone.
When should an agency not use a photographer's gallery for proofing?
When the agency already runs review rounds inside its own review or asset management software. That system carries the versioning, approvals and audit trail the account depends on, and a photographer's gallery competing with it makes the process worse. In that case deliver into the agency's system and keep the gallery for the work it is good at.
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